Courage Under Fire
by Kavi Darkwolf
Summary: Basic Summary: Fox McCloud finds out that he has a daughter, but she hates him. Can the two figure out a way to get along? Will Kyla attempt to rescue him when he and his team go missing? Full summary inside. Rated T for violence, blood, and language. Post Starfox: Assault.
1. Revelation

**Summary:**_ Kyla is a troublemaking fox girl at the orphanage she grew up in. She has never known any parents, nor does she ever want to. But after an attempt to rob someone of their cash, everything goes wrong. Kyla is hauled into the headmistress's office after she is caught, but instead of being punished as she expects, she is informed that she has a father! _

_Fox McCloud does not know how to take the fact that he now has a teenage daughter. Naturally, he brings Kyla to live with him and his crew on the Great Fox and to perhaps eventually make her into a member of Team Starfox. But she is rebellious and disrespectful, wanting nothing to do with him. _

_When Team Starfox goes missing, will Kyla take it upon herself and the friends to search out the man whom she believes to have abandoned her, and attempt to rescue him? _

**Revelation**

In a room located on the third floor and near the back of the Zoness Central Lylatian Orphanage, faint clicking noises could be heard from the direction of the door, or, more specifically, the door lock.

On the other side of the door, a teenage fox girl stood with her ear cocked close to the door lock. She was listening intently to the sound of the lock pick that she was turning gently in the keyhole beneath the knob. The keyhole and the wooden door were prime examples that the orphanage was practically ancient, built back in the time before keycards and number pad locks or automatically sliding metal doors. It was these old types of locks that the fox girl was a master at picking.

"Kyla, how's it coming?" came a velvet smooth voice with a Zonessian accent from around a nearby corner of the hall.

"It's comin'," the fox hissed in her own rough accent, a mixture of many other accents from around the Lylat System that she had picked up from the other foreign kids in the orphanage. "Now shut up so I can hear what I'm doin', Oska. You just keep your eyes peeled for anyone comin'."

"Telling me to shut up when she's the one doing all the talking?" the voice -it was deep, male- grumbled quietly.

The fox, Kyla, smiled at the remark. Suddenly, her ears pricked forward at the sound of a double click from the lock she was picking. "Hahar!" the fox laughed quietly. "I'm in, Oska."

"Alright. Hurry up already, before she comes back from lunch," Oska urged.

Kyla needed no second bidding. She pocketed her lock pick, then gently turned the brass doorknob. The door swung open silently; Kyla had already oiled the hinges with a small flask of vegetable oil that she always carried with her along with her lock picks.

The black fox tiptoed silently on bare feet across the threadbare carpet to the big wooden desk right across the room from the door. She walked around to the back of the desk and pushed the old rolling chair out of the way. The wheels squeaked a bit as she moved it behind her, but Kyla was not worried about the sound. It was too minute for anyone else to hear. She began opening the large drawers and pawing through them, rifling through boring looking papers so that she could feel the bottoms of the drawers for any switches to a secret compartment.

The fox had gotten information from a good source that this particular desk did indeed have secret compartment. It was supposed to contain the meager lifesavings of the owner of the room.

On the third drawer that she tried -a ridiculously big one at the bottom of the desk- Kyla find that the inside was not as big as the outside suggested. She hauled out the stack of files that was inside and set it on top of the desk. She felt around in the bottom, but could not find any kind of catch., so she decided that it must be one of the oldest and best concealed mechanisms for a secret compartment. She reached to the back and pressed down on the wood. When it did nothing, she raised her hand, then slammed her fist down on it. The front of the bottom of the drawer popped up in response.

Kyla grinned wolfishly as she reached in and pulled out a pile of credits. She rifled through them a bit, counting them quickly. This was great! There were a little over fifty credits in her hand. She and Oska would be able to half it and take twenty-five each, plenty of spending money in the poor town of Laasken that was home to the orphanage.

The fox's left ear instinctively swiveled around at the sound of wooden floorboards creaking from somewhere close to her. Her head snapped up and her emerald green eyes widened at the sight of an old mouse woman standing on the other side of the rolling chair with a small can of Pepper Spray pointed at Kyla's head. The fox girl held up her hands, the money still in one of them.

Kyla noticed the bathroom door behind the woman standing wide open and realized that that must have been where the old mouse had been all that time. Out of the corner of her eye, Kyla also saw a half-eaten sandwich lying on the desk surface and cursed herself for not having noticed it before. That would explain why the mouse was not at lunch. It also would explain why, when Oska and Kyla had arrived at their rendezvous point a little ways away from the door, they had never seen her exit her room. Because they had arrived late, the two had assumed that the mouse woman had already left to go eat in the cafeteria. How stupid!

Kyla's keen eyes caught the almost imperceptible movement of the woman's finger begin to press down on the activation button of the Pepper Spray.

The fox reacted instantly and dove over the desk. She heard the sound of the spray hissing out of the can as she hit the floor in a roll. Kyla jumped up and staggered dizzily and a little winded into the wall just outside of the door. She glanced back and saw the mouse talking swiftly on a central communicator that was sitting on the desk. Kyla cursed her ill luck softly. This entire thing was not going right. The mouse was not going to give chase as Kyla had hoped. Instead, she was wasting no time in calling in the cavalry, which would cut down on Kyla's lead considerably.

A giant of a black panther appeared from around the corner at the sound of Kyla's crash. "Jig's up, mate," Kyla gasped to him. "It's time we weren't here!" She tossed the wad of credits to Oska. "She hasn't seen you yet. Get it to a safe place."

The panther winked a purple eye at Kyla. "Right. Time for the fun. See you soon if they catch you."

The fox grinned roguishly back at him. "An' in a few days if they don't," she replied. Kyla was not worried too much about getting caught. What she was worried about was Oska. She completely trusted the panther to hide the money in a good place, but she did not trust him to not turn himself in as her accomplice if she _were_ caught. He could be annoyingly noble-minded at times. The way things were going, Kyla hoped that her best friend would just be selfish for once.

Oska's eyes flicked toward the door to see if the mouse woman had noticed him. Seeing that she had not, he disappeared around the corner as Kyla took off in the opposite direction from which the panther had been standing guard earlier. The fox's path took her to a dark, windowless back hallway that had long ago been used as a storage place before it was forgotten completely. She did a swift turn to the left to enter the hallway, then remembered the piles of cardboard boxes and crates that had been left there and began dodging them as best she could. She had to peer through the dim light cast by the flickering halogen bulbs overhead to see any obstacles in her path, but the fox was nimble on her feet and was able to maintain at least a steady speed.

Suddenly, Kyla's heartbeat quickened as she caught the sound of a pair of swiftly moving feet from some distance behind her. She immediately knew that it was a cheetah who was named Blaze for his incredible speed. He was used by the officials of the facility to chase down any criminals in the orphanage that attempted to run away from their punishments. In the past, he had had to chase Kyla many times after her numerous misdemeanors and had even managed to catch the clever fox on a few accounts. It was he that the mouse woman had called, and he must have been really close at the time to have been able to catch up with Kyla so quickly.

Kyla came to a stretch of the hallway that she knew to be clear of boxes and leveled herself out in a flat run, hoping to gain more of a lead over her swift pursuer, who she guessed would most likely still be moving cautiously to avoid colliding with any boxes in the darkness. Kyla's hopes were rewarded when she heard the sound of Blaze's feet grow a bit fainter behind her.

She was making for a secret place that she knew to lead off of that hallway somewhere ahead of her, but she had to make it there before Blaze caught up to her. If he were too close behind, Kyla would not be able to hide without him seeing where she went. Thus, he would find the only hiding place that she had in the area, making his discovery of it something that she could not afford.

Without warning, Kyla's feet became entangled in a broken crate that she had not seen in a darker area of the hall and she fell with a heavy crash. Pain seared through her left leg as a bit of the broken wood cut a long gash in her calf. Kyla jumped up without stopping to examine her wound and continued on, knowing that Blaze was gaining on her every second that she was not moving. Kyla had a lot of respect for the cheetah that had managed to catch one of the fastest and cleverest creatures in the orphanage a few times, but she hoped that Blaze would meet the same fate that she had on the unintended trap.

When Kyla did not hear the sound of the cheetah running into the crate behind her, she knew that she had lost. She was almost to the secret hiding place, but Blaze was far too close behind her. Her breaths were coming in ragged gasps and the pain in her leg had slowed her down considerably. However, Kyla would not give up that easily. She decided to resort to one last ditch effort at escape.

Blaze ran steadily down the hallway, his long legs pounding the old, colorless carpet like pistons. He would normally have run a lot faster than he was running then, but his naturally long strides were hampered by the need to do so much dodging around a bunch of boxes and some large piles of crates that he found to be strewn throughout the hallway. He reflected that when he had to chase her, Kyla often led him through places like this where she had the advantage in knowing where the things to dodge were positioned.

Blaze had not been caught by the trap that Kyla had become acquainted to earlier because he had been warned by the sound of her crash, and had dodged around it easily. He had noticed that the sound of his prey had gotten louder and became sure that he was gaining on the swift fox again. This was confirmed by the telltale smell of blood around the area of the broken crate that told him that his quarry was injured and unable to run fast any longer.

A sudden silence up ahead caused the cheetah to prick his small round ears forward in surprise. Had she fallen again? He did not slow his pace, but it did not seem like the cunning fox to make the same mistake twice. However, Blaze had no time to ponder this because, as he passed a large pile of boxes on his right in a particularly dark area of the hallway, something rammed into him like a thunderbolt.

Blaze slammed into the wall opposite the boxes and coughed as the wind was driven from his body. He had no time to regain his breath as punches began rocketing into his sides and chest; all he could do was begin punching back in response. He could not see her because of her black coat, but Blaze had no doubt that his fierce opponent was Kyla. He would have known if it was really her equally dark-colored friend Oska that had ambushed him -perhaps to allow Kyla to get away- by his height and considerable strength.

"Kyla!" Blaze gasped between slugs. "I do not want to fight you. Please, just come back weeth me quietly so zat neither of us weel get hurt," he pleaded in a heavy Fortunan accent.

"I can't this time," Kyla replied, her voice laced with pain from her injured leg. "I've done a much worse crime than I've ever done before an' if they catch me now, they'll probably throw me in the Hole like they've been threatin' to do for so long." Blaze understood the fear in Kyla's voice at the mention of the Hole. Many in the orphanage knew that Kyla hated dark, tight places, and dark and tight was exactly what the Hole was.

Blaze was having difficulty in seeing Kyla to land a blow on her and she was taking advantage of it; hitting him in one place, then dodging away before he got a lock on her position to come at him from a different angle. But Blaze saw his chance when he caught sight of the glint of the fox's white fangs reflecting a flickering light that was coming from some distance away. He took his opportunity and used the sight of her fangs to pinpoint the location of her head, then brought his right hook smashing into Kyla's temple. She was out cold before she hit the floor.

Blaze watched the fox's prone form for a moment, his fists still raised to be ready if she was going to get back up again. When she did not, the cheetah slumped against the wall, gasping for air against the pain in his ribs and chest. He shook his head at the fox lying on the floor. "Oh Kyla. Methinks zat you are far to wild and fierce to be trapped in zees place." Once he had regained his breath, the cheetah tossed Kyla over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing and began carrying her back down the hall in the direction from which the two had come.

* * *

When Kyla came around, her head was pounding like a trip hammer, her leg was throbbing, and her lip was stinging. She ran her tongue over the place where her lip hurt and found a fresh scab growing over it. She concluded that one of her fangs must have cut her lip when Blaze had hit her head. Finding no other new damage, Kyla opened her eyes.

The darkness of the room that Kyla found was a welcome difference from the harsh white lights that she had expected. However, it was this difference in the light that told her that she was not at the Nurse's Station where she should have been. Curious as to why this was, she sat up from her reclining position on a couch to take stock of her surroundings.

The first thing she saw was Blaze sitting in an armchair against the wall next to the door, illumined by the soft golden light of a floor lamp standing next to his chair. He watched her intently with his golden eyes, his black-tipped tail twitching in anticipation as he waited to see if she was going to try making any moves to escape. Guessing at what he was thinking, Kyla shook her head at him. Judging by the throbbing pain in her leg, she was in no condition to run away at the moment.

Once he was certain that Kyla meant that shake of her head, Blaze turned to a desk set close to the wall on his left. "She ees awake," he announced.

Something stirred in the darkness, then another lamp came on, throwing light over a very old giraffe woman sitting behind the desk. She was dressed in a severe green jacket and wore no make up, a very plain woman. But there was one stunning thing about her that could not be seen so well through her plainness, and that was her well-known incredibly cold and merciless heart.

This was the woman who ran the Zoness Central Lylatian Orphanage. No one knew her real name and even the older matrons could not remember what it had been. Everyone who did not work for her, and even some who did, merely referred to her as 'the Witch'.

Kyla completely loathed this woman. She hated the way that the Witch ran things, the way she took most of the funding that the Cornerian government sent for the good of the orphanage and used it for herself, the punishments she meted out for some of the smallest and least punishable things, the way she kicked children if they got in her way when she was walking down a hall… The list of reason went on. Because of all of these things, Kyla often went out of her way to hassle the Witch in whatever way that she could.

The Witch watched Kyla from cold brown eyes for a moment. The room was small, so Kyla was already close enough to her to see by the rumpled look of her clothes and the puffiness of her eyelids that the woman had been sleeping in her chair. This made Kyla wonder what time it was. But judging from the lack of light streaming in through the open window behind the giraffe's chair, it was sometime in the middle of the night.

Finally, the giraffe spoke. "Come here," she commanded, biting off her words in that irritating way that annoyed Kyla to no end.

Unwilling to show that her leg was hurting her, Kyla swung off of the couch and strode jauntily across the room. Once she was in front of the giraffe, she lounged rudely against the desk and pretended to be bored with the Witch's presence by twisting one of her long locks of black hair around her finger. Just being around the Witch brought back horrible memories, one of which being the time that she had ordered that all of Kyla's hair be shaved off as a punishment for a harmful prank that the young fox girl had played on the giraffe when she was eleven. It was because of this woman that Kyla had developed a fierce hatred for any kind of authority.

"Why am I not at Nurse's place?" Kyla asked casually before the Witch started interrogating her. "That's obviously where I need to be."

The giraffe looked at her icily. "Because, Miss Kyla, the last time we sent you to the Nurse's office after you were injured during your escape from your punishment, you drugged the nurse and disappeared for a week." Kyla snickered at the memory.

Ignoring Kyla's amusement, the Witch busied herself with straightening a pile of papers that was sitting on her desk. "Where is the money, Miss Kyla?"

This was the question that Kyla had been expecting. She thought it comical that for once she was able to answer honestly. She spread her arms disarmingly. "I have no idea."

However, the broad grin that had spread across Kyla's muzzle when she said this convinced the Witch otherwise. "Tell me where it is."

Kyla blinked. For the first time ever, this command had not been followed up by the threat of some kind of terrible and occasionally painful punishment that usually came with it. "Y'can't force it outta me. I really don't know where it is."

"Then who does?" The Witch had obviously guessed by Kyla's statement that she had had an accomplice who did know where the cash was hidden. But because Kyla had turned up with several accomplices before, the Witch could not immediately pin it on Oska. That was a relief for Kyla, and the reason why she had done it that way in the past.

"No one, I guess," Kyla replied, feigning innocence. "I dropped it…" -she thought swiftly- "when I tripped over a broken crate when I was running."

The Witch looked at Blaze. The cheetah sighed. He did not like the Witch either, but she paid him to work for her while he had to remain at the orphanage. "She deed fall over a crate," he said to confirm Kyla's story. However, Kyla knew that Blaze knew that she was far more cunning than that. He would be certain that she would never have kept the money on her in the first place. He would not say this though. His job was to catch Kyla, not help with the interrogation.

The Witch reached over and pressed a button on the large, outdated comm.-link sitting on her desk. "Yes, ma'am?" a female voice asked from the speaker.

"Send a fast runner in here," the giraffe commanded.

"Blaze is not here. W-"

"I know that! Blaze is with me!" the Witch snapped, cutting the other person off impatiently.

"I was going to say, would you like me to send Regina?" the person on the other end continued, undaunted.

"Yes. She will do." The Witch cut off the transmission.

Almost instantly afterwards, a Great Dane girl walked through the door. "Yes, ma'am?" she asked of the Witch, standing at attention. Kyla leered at her in open loathing for anyone who sucked up to the Witch. The Great Dane ignored her.

The Witch barked out her orders in proper military fashion. "Go down the hall next to Missus Inch's room until you find another one that turns off of it. Should be full of old boxes and junk stored there. Find a broken crate somewhere close to the middle of the hallway and search around it for a bunch of credits. There should be around fifty there. Report back to me whether they are there or are not. Quick as you like!" It was apparent to Kyla that Blaze had already filled the Witch in on the details of the chase.

The Great Dane spun on her heel and dashed through the door without closing it. Blaze reached over from his seat and pushed the door shut to cut off the draft that crept through the orphanage at night. The Witch turned back to Kyla. "We shall see if your story proves to be true, Miss Kyla."

Kyla had her answer to this ready. She shrugged. "Somebody mighta picked it up by now if they went to investigate all the ruckus me an' Blaze stirred up."

The Witch 'harrumphed' at this. "I doubt that."

"But then how can you prove that I didn't have the money when I tripped over the crate?" Kyla asked, a devilish glint in her green eyes.

The Witch had no answer for this, so she changed the subject. "While we wait for Regina to get back, I have some important news for you."

Kyla picked at a sliver of wood on the desk, not particularly interested. She figured that what the Witch had to say was most likely whatever unusual punishment she had managed to think up for the unfortunate fox. At this thought, Kyla shot a glare at Blaze for having brought her back to this torturer. He only shrugged, not knowing really what she was giving him the look for.

The Witch opened one of her desk drawers and drew out two thick, green folders, then handed them to Kyla. She smirked, an expression that did not at all suit her. "We have found your father," she stated bluntly.

Kyla's eyes widened in shock. "What?" she yelped. Blaze was on his feet in surprise as well. Kyla had been at the orphanage the longest of everyone there, having been dropped off by her mother practically the day she was born. The mother had not shown herself, so Kyla had never even had a last name. Many had come to think that she had been born out of thin air.

"You will be even more surprised when you see who it is," the Witch hinted as she indicated the files in Kyla's hands.

Kyla looked down and saw that the tab on one of the folders had 'Kyla' printed on it in the Witch's neat hand writing. The other tab had -printed on it from a computer- the two words that changed Kyla's life from that night on: 'Fox McCloud'. 


	2. Birth of a Crazy Plan

**Birth of a Crazy Plan**

The entire orphanage was dark and silent when Kyla inserted a little metal key into her bedroom door lock. The old hinges squeaked as she opened the door. She had long ago made sure that they were never oiled so that she could hear anytime that someone attempted to enter her room, being the very cautious creature that she was. However, once inside, the fox girl did not even turn on the lights or check her room for intruders the way she usually did. Her head and leg were paining her too much, the knot that had formed in her stomach too big, for her to care tonight.

Once inside, Kyla shut the door behind her, then leaned her back against it. She sighed. How had her world turned completely upside down just from reading two little words: 'Fox McCloud'?

The vulpine rested against the door for a while as a thousand questions tumbled through her head, her mind jumping around wildly from one thought to the next. How was she the daughter of Fox McCloud? After all, she was already fifteen and he was only about thirty years old! Had he known about her all her of life, known that she was right there at the orphanage on Zoness? If so, why had he never come for her? If not, _would_ he come for her, once he knew about her? If had not known, would he want her? If he had known, had he just never wanted her at all to begin with?

Kyla's last thought hurt the most and it was the one question that she kept coming back to. _Did he just not want me? _she kept wondering. That was probably it, she decided. Fox just had not wanted her and had let her mother drop her off at the orphanage right after she was born.

Hot anger began to burn in Kyla's chest at this thought. Savagely, she threw the two files that she still had in her hand onto her bed. A muffled "Ow!" in response to this action caused Kyla's ears to prick up in surprise.

"Kyla?" a female voice whispered in the dark, this time more clearly than the muffle exclamation had been.

By the light of one of Zoness's two moons shining through the window, Kyla saw someone sit up on the bed so that she could just make out two tufted ears that she recognized silhouetted in the darkness. "Salixa? What're you doin' in my bed?"

Salixa had a very thick Fichinan brogue and often spoke quickly, so it was difficult for many to understand her. However, Oska and Kyla were of the few who did not have too much trouble catching most of what she said. "I'd heard ye'd been caught, so I sat on yore bed to stay up for ye. But ye took so long, I'm guessin' I fell asleep," came Salixa's reply. Kyla heard her yawn

Without warning, Kyla's bedside lamp came on. The fox squeezed her eyes shut against the glare, then reopened them slowly to allow them to adjust to the light. Once she could see again, Kyla found her white squirrel friend staring at her aghast, her hand still on the lamp light switch. Her thick red hair was tangled up in a loose braid and her big, normally laughing green eyes were wide with surprise. She leaped from her bed in only her white underclothes and bounded across the room to Kyla in just a few swift strides.

"Lass, what happened to ye?" she asked softly in reference to Kyla's injuries as she began inspecting them in a business-like manner.

Kyla could not help looking at the floor, but she still for her friend as she explained. "It all went wrong, Sal. I screwed up an' Blaze ended up catchin' me. We got into a fight an' he beat th' crap outta me." She winced as Salixa carefully probed the wound around her leg. "Has Oska shown up yet?" she asked, taking the pain with gritted teeth. If he had, he would probably already be on his way to turn himself in as Kyla's accomplice in their failed attempt at robbery. He could be very annoying when he did things like that.

"Nay," Salixa replied. She pointed to Kyla's bed. "Sit," she commanded.

Kyla sighed with relief at Salixa's news that Oska had not yet been there. At least now she would be able to talk her noble-minded friend out of doing something silly by explaining to him that the Witch was not even going to bother with punishing her until they found out whether she was going to soon be leaving the orphanage or not.

Kyla limped over to her bed, then took a seat at the edge, drawing up her knees so that she could rest her chin on them. She watched as Salixa began busily rummaging through a small metal box that she kept next to her own bed on the other side of the room from Kyla's. She could not help but shudder when her squirrel friend began pulling out bandages, salve, and what looked like might be a bottle of painkillers. The fox was not fond of medical treatment. However, Kyla knew that she could trust Salixa, for the squirrel had been a healer on her home planet of Fichina and was very good at basic healing, especially now that she had modern medicines to work with where she had at first had only a few herbs to use.

Salixa came back to Kyla's side of the room, bearing her medical supplies. "So what happened?" she asked as she began working on Kyla's wounds. Kyla quickly related the details of the previous afternoon as best as she could remember. But when she got up to the point where the Witch had told her that her father had been found, her voice caught and she could not go on.

When Kyla became quiet, Salixa stopped wrapping a bandage around Kyla's calf to look up at her. "Is that it, then?"

Kyla shook her head, her words having deserted her. She leaned over her bed and retrieved the two files that she had chunked at her bed earlier, re-gathering up their contents that had spilled out and putting them back into the best order that she could. Once she had done that, she wordlessly handed them to Salixa.

"What's this?" the squirrel asked as she sat down on the floor with her back to the bed and began leafing through the files. Kyla laid back on her bed and stared at the worn and stained ceiling without answering. "This ones yours," she heard Salixa mumble after glancing at the tab attached to the file - she often talked out loud when she was thinking things through. Then Kyla heard her catch her breath. At this sound, the fox cut her eyes to the left so that she could see what had surprised Salixa without having to turn her head. She found that the squirrel was staring at something she had found in the back of Kyla's file. Kyla sat up to get a better look at it over her friend's shoulder.

Kyla discovered that Salixa was reading over the last page in the file, which looked like it had been hastily added pretty recently. The squirrel's lips moved slightly as she mouthed the words on the page to herself. Kyla found that along with a picture of a smiling Fox McCloud who looked like he did not want to be there, there was also an old picture of Kyla, who was scowling at the camera. Beneath the two pictures, the text read something like this:

Name: Fox James McCloud

Age: 31

Race: Fox

Eye Color: Green

Fur Color: Orange and White

Height: 6' 1"

Weight: 153 lbs

Home Planet: Corneria

Residence: The _Greatfox_ and 1151 Parr, Corneria City, Corneria

Occupation: Mercenary

Name: Kyla McCloud

Age: 15

Race: Fox

Eye Color: Green

Fur Color: Black

Height: 5' 2"

Weight: 112 lbs

Home Planet: Zoness

Residence: The Zoness Central Lylatian Orphanage, 1217 Hillside, Laasken, Laasken Island, Zoness

Occupation: None

Nature of Occupants of This Page: Fox J. McCloud and Kyla McCloud have been found to be related as father and daughter by officials at the Zoness Central Lylatian Orphanage after Kyla McCloud was named an orphan at one year of age. Fox J. McCloud will be contacted about this turn of events because his name was not on the papers that were signed by Kyla McCloud's mother when Kyla McCloud was released to the Zoness Central Lylatian Orphanage. Because of this, it was assumed that Kyla McCloud's father was dead, so Kyla McCloud earned the status of 'Orphan'. Kyla McCloud's status will be changed from that of 'Orphan' to that of 'Homeless' if Fox J. McCloud refuses to readopt his daughter.

Kyla could not help snorting angrily at the phrase _Kyla McCloud_ earned _the status of 'orphan'_ when she read that part.

However, Kyla was a very fast reader and had already finished the page, while it seemed that Salixa had only gotten to the beginning line of the second paragraph. She gazed up at Kyla, her green eyes wide. "Kyla… McCloud?" She sounded absolutely stunned. "This… this has t'be a jest Kyla! There's no way!"

Kyla sat down on the floor next to the squirrel. It helped her to know that she was not the only one to freak out at this news. She leaned her head back on the bed and heaved a great sigh. "It's true, mate."

Salixa got up and began pacing in short circles. "What's gonna happen to ye?" she wondered aloud. "D'ye think he'll come an' get ye?" she asked as she stopped in front of Kyla, her ears cocked and her face unhappy. Kyla did not like it when her normally laughing friend was sad, especially if it were because of her.

"Personally? No," Kyla replied bitterly in answer to Salixa's question. "Besides, I don't wanna go live with him. I'd have t'be around one of my parents who just left me here when I was still a kit!" Kyla's dark green eyes hardened. "And anyway, d'you really think he's gonna take me now? I mean, we both know couples -an' even singles- rarely want an older orphan. We're so much harder t'raise t'their ways once we're this age." She suddenly yawned hard, which only served to take some of the force out of her proud words.

Salixa could not help but smile when Kyla yawned after the fervor of her words, then lost the smile and nodded soberly at what the fox had said. "I guess ye're right," she muttered, then sat down next to Kyla again. "What time is it?" she asked as she picked up the file on Fox McCloud from the floor next to her.

Kyla glanced at her digital wristwatch. "Almost six. Dawn's a coupla hours away still." On Zoness, Sol -the Lylat System's sun- did not rise until around eight-thirty.

"Alright. I'll wait up for Oska t'show up, since I've already slept most of the night. Ye getcha some rest. Ye've got a long day ahead of ye." Salixa began twisting a finger through her hair. "When d'ye find out if Fox is gonna readopt ye?" she asked as Kyla stood up and stretched.

Kyla climbed up onto her bed and stretched out on top of the sheets gratefully, realizing then how incredibly tired she was. "I dunno," she replied. "Th' Witch is supposed t'contact him tomorrow- er… _this_ evenin', I guess it is now. Currently, th' _Greatfox_ is hangin' around somewhere near Katina, so it'll be early mornin' there when she calls 'im."

Salixa nodded. Soon, the only sound in the room was the occasional rustle of paper when she turned the pages, along with the sound of Kyla's breathing. It was perfect peace for Kyla to fall asleep in, so she closed her eyes, trying to let her on-edge nerves relax. But just as she was about to drop off, her friend's voice woke her up again. "Is this marm, Krystal McCloud, yore ma?"

Kyla opened her eyes and reached out a hand towards Salixa without moving the rest of her body. "Lemme see it." Salixa handed Fox McCloud's file over, still opened to the page she had been reading. Kyla took it, then swiftly scanned it over. "No, she's not my mom. See? They've only been married for three years, an' she's too young to have borne me, unless she was only twelve at th' time," she explained, pointing out Krystal McCloud's age and the length of time that she and Fox had been married, both of which were printed on the page. "Guess he found someone to replace my mom," Kyla reflected bitterly.

She handed the file back to Salixa. The squirrel girl looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe ye oughta get a file on this Krystal, so ye'll know what she's like if'n Fox does take ye."

Kyla was not particularly interested, but she thought that maybe she should look into it. "Good suggestion," she said through a yawn. "I'll sleep on it." With that, she turned over and drifted off into slumber.

A quiet knocking on the door wakened Kyla, who slept very lightly anyway. She sat up on the bed and saw, by the light of the still lit lamp, Salixa standing close to the bedroom door, listening. Kyla pricked her ears forward, listening as well. There were two taps, then a pause, then one tap, then another, longer pause, then one loud bang. This was the secret knock between Oska, Kyla, and Salixa that they used to let each other know that it was one of them who was at the door. Kyla nodded to Salixa, who then opened the door a little ways to admit Oska.

Kyla swung her feet to the floor, but did not stand up, because her leg still hurt. She watched Oska unblinkingly as he leaned against the wall next to the door and regarded her with his amethyst eyes. "Did you hide the money?" she asked him.

"Aye. So I take it you got caught, eh, mate?" he drawled softly in his honey smooth accent.

Kyla nodded sleepily. "Aye. It was, in short, a disaster."

The panther pricked up his short, round ears. "I'm listening. Tell me all."

Kyla proceeded to relate to him all events that had occurred after they had parted ways, with Salixa chiming in now and then to correct her story in one way or another, and even managed to tell him about finding out that she was Fox McCloud's daughter. It seemed to be getting easier for her to talk about her… father, now that she was getting used to the idea that he actually existed. However, it still caused the knot in her stomach to constrict anytime she happened to mention or think about it.

When she got down to that part of her story, Oska stiffened and demanded to see the files. Salixa, who had already read them through completely, handed them over to him. The big panther, who had never been good in school due to playing hooky far too often, slowly read the files, keeping his finger on the page to avoid losing his place. It took quite a while and Kyla was just about to fall asleep again when Oska finally got to the part that stated that Fox McCloud truly was Kyla's kin. She quickly came awake again when the panther began yelling.

"They're going to take you away!" he bellowed, the realization contorting his normally handsome face with fury and anguish. Salixa leapt up and tried to shush him to keep him from waking everyone else in the orphanage.

"I will not be quiet!" Oska yelled at Salixa. He slammed the files onto the floor. "She's my best friend! What're we going to do without her? What's life going to be like without her?" he demanded. He began to pace the floor. "I will not just let this guy take you away when he did not even want you until now!" He growled to Kyla, his purple eyes snapping angrily.

_He's right,_ Kyla thought. _And_ _what am_ I_ going to do without _them_?_ This thought swirled into her mind to mix in with the many other questions that she had concerning Fox McCloud. But she focused on this one more strongly. She knew that she did not want to stay with Fox McCloud, but what if she actually had to go? Could she just leave her friends here? She definitely did not want to ever have to be without Oska, with whom she had been best friends for as long as she could remember, or Salixa, whom she had not known for very long but trusted with her life, for she had proven herself worthy of that trust many times. Was there perhaps some way…?

Suddenly, Oska stopped in front of her, having noticed that she was just watching him expressionlessly. "You're awfully calm about this, Kyla," he stated.

"I was thinkin'," she replied.

Oska blew out a loud sigh of frustration and flopped down onto the floor, figuring that Kyla was just trying to distract him so that he would calm down. It would not have been the first time that she had pulled this strategy on him. "What about?" he inquired.

"I'm gonna find a way t'take you two with me," Kyla declared.

Salixa went to stand next to Oska's seat on the floor with her arms crossed, looking at Kyla hard. "Um, Ky, I dunno ifn maybe you ha'n't noticed, but McCloud i'n't our pa. He i'n't gonna adopt us too." Kyla raised an eyebrow at her. She knew from experience that Salixa only slipped into her thickest Fichinan when she was upset or scared.

"I know that," Kyla replied. She placed her right hand over her mouth, her thumb resting on the right side of her muzzle and her fingers splayed out across her left cheek. This was a habit that she had of doing when she was thinking hard. "Don't you guys remember how big th' _Greatfox_ looked when we saw it on television a few years ago, after th' Apariod invasion? There must be hundreds of places I could hide you two!" Kyla was beginning to warm to her idea.

"Oh, no," Oska broke in. "This is another one of her totally hair-brained schemes," he said to Salixa. "She comes up with some really crazy plans at times, and I'm surprised that we've made it out alive from some of them." Salixa had only been at the orphanage for six months, so she was not very familiar with the things that Kyla and Oska had done in the past.

"We made it out alive 'cause my plans work," Kyla argued. "Stop dissin' an' help me figure out how t'make _this_ one work."

"Tell me, how d'ye plan on actually _gettin' _us to the _Greatfox_?" Salixa asked, one eyebrow raised.

"You're actually going along with her?" Oska asked Salixa disbelievingly.

"Fox has t'come get me _somehow_," Kyla replied to Salixa, ignoring Oska for the moment. "I could stow you guys away on whatever he comes t'get me with."

"Doesn't the Starfox Team fly those Arwings?" Oska asked, resigning himself to help his friends. "Maybe he'll pick you up in one of those."

Salixa glared at him. "What happened to not wanting to be apart of this?" she asked scathingly.

"If you ladies are actually going to go through with this, I have to make sure you two don't get yourselves caught," the panther replied.

Kyla smiled inwardly. She had hoped that he would change his tune soon and decide to help. But on the outside, she was no nonsense. "Quit bickerin', you two. I can't think," Kyla snapped. The other two shut up, so Kyla continued. "You're right, Oska. They do fly Arwings and Fox'll most likely pick me up in one. What we need is a blueprint of the interior of an Arwing t'see if there's anyplace we can put you guys."

Salixa thought for a moment. "There's likely t'be one on th' internet. I could be lookin' it up for ye," Salixa offered. She was good in all things technical and would probably find it easily enough, even if it meant a little hacking here and there.

"Good," Kyla replied. "Oska, I need you t'find some bags for us t'pack our things in. We'll all need t'take as few things as we can manage, so once I find out if we're goin' or not, I'll let you know so y'can start selectin' which things y'wanna bring. Maybe we can pack some of you guys' things inta my bag. That way, no one'll know whether it's actually all mine or not."

Oska nodded at the command.

Kyla looked again to Salixa. "While you're at it, I also need blueprints of th' _Greatfox_. I dunno how easy it'll be to get ahold of those, though, even with your expertise."

"I'll get 'em," Salixa replied lightly, a devilish look crossing her face as she did.

"Alright." Kyla looked from one grim face to the other. "This's the most dangerous thing the three of us have ever attempted together." Kyla held out her fist in front of her. "Are y'with me, mates?"

The other two pounded her fist with doubled up fists of their own. "Aye!" they exclaimed together.


	3. News

**News**

An incessant beeping noise gradually woke Fox McCloud from a nap at his desk. He opened his eyes and sat up. Upon running a hand over his face, he found that his fur had been imprinted with the shape of the papers and electronic notepad on the desk in front of him.

_Damn. Fell asleep again._

He glanced at the holographic clock suspended just above the surface of the desk. It read somewhere around five in the morning, but he didn't bother figuring out the rest. He stretched to wake himself better. Even though his mercenary ship, the _Greatfox_, ran on a twenty-four hour clock, it still felt really early to him. Probably because he'd been up late trying to finish these reports. He decided he'd do them later in the day, after he'd slept in his own bed for a few hours.

Fox stood and began to walk out of his office. But his ear cocked back as the noise that had woken him sounded out again. He turned and scanned the bank of computers at the back of the room until he noticed the comm.-link light blinking feebly. Fox sighed and walked over to press the receive button. _If someone's calling me about a job this early in the morning, I'm gonna shoot them._

He slumped in his hover chair and turned it to face the holograph that unfolded itself above the bank of computers. Realizing his bad posture, he forced himself to straighten up and look professional. At least, as professional as he could with indentations on his face and sleep in his eyes at five a.m. "This had better be good," he grumbled under his breath.

"Good morning, Mr. McCloud," said the person who had appeared on the holograph, but the greeting held no degree of warmth. A giraffe woman with severity about her mouth regarded him through cold brown eyes. Fox noticed immediately that something about her fairly oozed negativity. It almost caused him to lose the expression of indifference he always wore for calls.

"Morning," he replied shortly. He could tell that this woman definitely wasn't the type to be calling him for a mercenary job, so what could she possibly want? He felt his irritation increasing by the second. Whether from being woken so early or simply from the bad vibes he felt rolling off her across space and into his lap, he didn't know. "May I help you?" _I hate formality._

"Yes, I'm calling from the Zoness Lylatian Central Orphanage-"

_As if I can't see that info in the corner of my screen, like _all_ calls._

"-and I have some very important news for you." The woman sounded like she kept trying to bite her words and bring them back into her mouth. It distracted him from what she said for a moment. Wait, had she said "orphanage"? For some unknown reason, Fox McCloud, who could take laser bolts whizzing past his head coolly, felt sweat break out along his spine at the word. Why? Something about it compelled him to listen to her more closely.

"It has come to our attention that _your daughter_ is stationed in our facilities."

The bluntness of the statement caused Fox to take several seconds to grasp exactly what she had said. When it finally came home to him, blood began to roar through his ears. …_What?! _He didn't move, just sat for a moment, trying to wrap his mind around what she'd just said.

When he discovered that he simply could not believe it, Fox grasped at a new idea that came swirling out of the fog of his mind. "That can't be true," he said, stronger than he thought he could.

The giraffe's eyes narrowed. "Why not?"

"There's just absolutely no way I can have a child at all right now. You see," -Fox coughed and blushed- "I wasn't exactly very… um, sexually active before I got married. And… my wife's barren, so…" _Yeah, that explains everything._

The woman just looked at him. Fox coughed again. He hadn't felt this awkward in a long time. After a moment, in which she seemed to be letting him think about it, she finally said, "You act just like her." Fox thought he caught a hint of disgust in the giraffe's tone.

As he opened his mouth to protest again, a picture suddenly appeared on the screen, filling it completely. It depicted a young fox girl. She had midnight black fur as well as incredibly long and equally dark, free-falling hair. Her ears cocked back lazily with disinterest. She'd scrunched up her beautifully tapered muzzle in a scowl. But above it, her bright green eyes glittered with amusement and mischief under long dark lashes. A caption near the bottom read, "Kyla McCloud."

Mild irritation buzzed in the back of Fox's head that they had already bestowed his name upon the fox girl, but he knew he couldn't be angry at this point. Because he had seen that black fur, that slim, shapely body, those mischievous eyes—though they'd actually been blue—before. Except for the eyes, Kyla looked very familiar.

Like Lee Cooper.

Even if she wasn't his daughter, Fox felt sure that he at least knew exactly whose daughter this Kyla had to be.

"I see you get it now," the giraffe woman said. Though he couldn't see her through the picture, Fox guessed that she could still see him.

_Not quite the way you think,_ he thought in reply.

"She even has your eyes, if you notice," she continued.

… _Shit. She does._ Fox found himself nodding numbly. Did he really think so? It couldn't be, but it had to be. Didn't it? Was she really… his daughter? Or was this all one big mistake?

"How do you know?" Fox asked hoarsely. He swallowed. "For sure?" he continued more clearly.

"DNA testing," the woman replied. "You have a few weeks to decide if you want to readopt her or not, since her status is currently that of "orphan". I am faxing over her complete profile. Call me back at this number when you have decided." An intergalactic number flashed across the screen. "It will be printed on the business sheet that I am sending as well."

Ignoring this, Fox noticed that the woman hadn't offered any further information about _why_ they had tested Kyla's DNA. He felt suspicion begin to prickle along the back of his neck. Just as he started to ask about it, the woman signed off without so much as a farewell.

Fox glared at the blank holograph, then switched it off. "Rude," he spat and allowed himself to slump limply in his chair.

Fox spent a week thinking about it, mulling over about a million questions. The main ones being, should he readopt this girl and what would everybody think?

For that matter, how to _tell_ everyone else? Especially, how to tell his _wife_?

He did his best to act like his normal self. Small jobs poured in these days, but he never took any for himself. Instead, he assigned them to his teammates Falco, Krystal, or Slippy, keeping himself on board the _Greatfox_ to give himself some solitude. The excuse that he had a lot of office work that needed to be taken care of worked nicely for a while.

But Krystal noticed.

Fox sat up late again in his office, Kyla's rather thin file of papers spread out across his desk. She had so many tastes similar to Lee Cooper's that it kept giving him bad déjà vu. The list of her misdemeanors reminded him of all the times Lee had gotten the two of them in trouble at the Cornerian Flight Academy. The memories made him smile.

But the number of times Kyla had escaped punishment made him frown. It told him that she didn't take responsibility or authority very well. Which brought up to him the question of how Kyla would take suddenly having a parent after 15 years. Could she handle someone having rules over her? Could he manage her, even?

Fox shook himself. Of course he could manage an unruly teenager. He had to keep Falco in line, didn't he?

_Not that he always listens to me anyway._

Fox's ear twitched at the sound of his office door hissing open. He looked up to find Krystal standing in the doorway, the halogen light spilling in behind her framing her beautiful figure and brightening her cobalt blue fur like an angel or goddess. She smiled that dazzling smile that, even after three years, still left him slightly dizzy at the sight of it.

"You're up late," she commented in her Cenarian accent. "How's it coming?"

Fox realized that he still had Kyla's file spread everywhere. He surreptitiously leaned his elbow on Kyla's photograph, thinking that if he could just hide that, Krystal wouldn't think anything of the rest of the papers. He rested his head in his hand and looked up at her as she walked further into the room.

"Kinda slow, but I'm getting there." He smiled and cocked an eyebrow at her. "What are you doing up so late?"

Krystal clutched at her arms and seemed to shrink a little into her night robe. "That bed is terribly lonely."

Fox winced inwardly. Why was it so easy to know exactly what was happening in a fire fight, but he couldn't balance three things at once off the field? "I'm coming, love," he said as he reached forward and lifted her fingers to his lips. He looked up into her big blue eyes and smiled when he saw her face light up. Satisfied, he leaned over to switch off his office lamp, but stopped short at the sound of a gasp from his wife.

Krystal snatched the sheet of paper he'd revealed when he moved his elbow. She frowned at the picture of the young fox. "Is _this_ what you have been doing up here?" she demanded, skipping lightly away when Fox grabbed at the paper.

Fox leapt up, but stood indecisively between his wife and the chair. He didn't want to snatch the paper away from Krystal and look guilty, but he didn't want to have this conversation yet. He hadn't even made a decision himself! He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Who is she?" Krystal demanded. "Are you… have you started…" Her eyes pooled with tears. "I thought… what did I do wrong?"

Fox's head snapped up at the last question. He frowned. "Nothing! What are you talking about?"

He reached out to take her arm, but she jerked away from him, the paper clamped in her fist. "Don't touch me!" she hissed.

Fox's arm dropped. "Krystal…" He suspected he'd lost track of what was going on in her head. "You didn't do anything wrong. What's the matter?"

Krystal waved the paper under his nose. "_This_ is what's the matter!" she fairly shrieked. "I thought I made up happy!" Her voice started to choke. "I thought you loved me! But now you have taken a… a lov—" Her voice broke and she started sobbing before she could finish, but Fox finally caught what she was talking about.

He stood in stunned silence as his wife stared at the floor, tears running down her muzzle. How could she possibly think that? That he would ever cheat on her? He'd carried Krazoa spirits, fought dinosaurs, even killed Andross a second time to save her. He'd fought next to her during the Aparoid Wars and countless smaller battles. He trusted her with everything, but she didn't trust him? Thoughts roiled in his head, leading his heart down a darker and darker path. Resentment crashed over him and he felt his feet glue to the floor, his jaw lock down... how was he supposed to react to this?

The silence stretched for too long. Krystal glanced at him with pain filled eyes and a sob escaped her chest. She turned and ran toward the door. Fox's breath caught. In that moment when her eyes had met his, he knew he couldn't possibly lose her.

Fox leapt forward and grabbed her arm. She struggled, spitting obscenities in Cenarian, but he didn't let go. He gently pushed her backward until her back fetched up against a wall. She was strong, but not strong enough to push him away. He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair, the way he knew she liked, making soothing noises. She fought for a bit longer, but finally collapsed against him and sobbed. He rested his chin on top of her head, and through the sounds of heartbreak, he did his best to explain.

"She's not my lover, Krys. I promise I'd never cheat on you. Never."

"Then who is she?" Krystal demanded again, hope and fear mingling in her voice.

Fox swallowed. "She's my… my daughter." It was hard to get the words past his lips. By saying it out loud, it meant that he believed it. Made it true. He'd known it for a while, but now he had to accept it in his heart.

Krystal stiffened in his arms. Fox squeezed his eyes shut, knowing she could react any number of ways. He didn't know which way to jump. He opened them again when she pulled back from his chest and looked up into his face. Fox read pain and anger in her eyes. "You're lying," she spat.

This definitely wasn't the way Fox had hoped this would happen. But now at least he knew he could do something. "No. Come here and look at this." He tried to take her hand and lead her over to Kyla's file, but she slipped her fingers out of his. Fox looked back at her in surprise and hurt, and she glared back at him. He still had to try, so he picked up the crumpled first page of the file, gathered up the rest, and handed it to Krystal. He sat down in his chair and waited as she stood alone in the middle of the room, sniffling and poring over every word in the file.

Fox watched her intently. Lines of tension in her body slowly began to ease, while others began to tighten up. At one point, he saw her rest a hand on her midriff and knew she was thinking of the children they could never have. Was she starting to believe him? Was she just tense still because this wasn't also_ her_ daughter? Fox realized he was holding his breath and let it go. This was worse than pre-battle jitters.

Finally, Krystal raised her eyes and looked over the papers in her hand at Fox. She had that look, the one that told him she really wanted to read his thoughts. But they had agreed at the beginning of their marriage that she wouldn't violate his privacy like that. Still, she looked dangerously close to trying it anyway. Fox felt his hackles trying to rise, but suppressed the urge. If she tried it, on top of accusing him of cheating, it might just break their trust beyond repair.

Krystal took a deep breath, breaking the moment. Her tail curled around her legs, the way she did when she didn't know what to do. Fox took that as his cue and stood up, walking over to put his arms around her shoulders. Thankfully, she let him, but her muscles were still rigid.

"We don't have to talk about it tonight, okay?" he said quietly next to her ear.

Krystal nodded, looking more than a little lost. Fox took the papers from her hand and laid them on his desk. After he turned off the light, the image of Lee Cooper, his old girlfriend, staring at him from the face of his daughter, seared into his brain as he walked his wife up to their bedroom.


	4. Departure

_Note: The last chapter was revised quite a bit, so if you haven't read the updated version, you might want to do that before continuing with this one._

**Departure**

Kyla packed the last of her meager possessions into her duffle bag on top of the few things Oska and Salixa had chosen to bring. She ran her thumb along the strap unseeingly, her mind awhirl. She was actually leaving. Though she hated the Orphanage, it had also been her home for fifteen years. She couldn't imagine living anywhere that the wind didn't constantly blow and the air didn't always smell of mildew and salt. Where the food was barely worth eating and the staff too poor to rob. Where fights broke out in the halls and 'school' was a joke. Not living under the shadow of the Witch, but under someone maybe worse… her own father.

Anger rose up in her chest. It had taken Fox McCloud three weeks to let the Witch know he was going to readopt Kyla. There'd been no message for his daughter. Just an out of the blue consent to take her off the government's hands at the very last second. Kyla put a hand to her forehead and took a deep breath. At this rate, she was going to have to take up yoga or something to keep her head. There was nothing she could do about it just yet. But after today, she would have plenty of time to express her feelings on the matter.

Finally, Kyla slipped twenty-five of the credits she and Oska had stolen from her pocket and laid it on top of her clothes, then zipped the bag up. The money was her share of the spoils and also the diversion. A small price to pay to make the plan work.

Rain lashed the windows of the hall outside her room. Kyla closed the door without looking back at her old room. But not without leaving a fun surprise for the next occupant: a dart in the keyhole covered in some nasty medicine filched from the nurse that would induce vomiting. Kyla had once found out the hard way that having even a little bit of it in your blood stream worked. She hoped it would be the Witch who opened this door eventually, maybe to take one last look at its lack of Kyla.

The halls were dark and silent as Kyla made her way up to the landing pad on the roof of the Orphanage. It was the only one in Laasken, only because the Orphanage was the biggest one in the Lylat System, and kids under the jurisdiction of the Cornerian Government were dropped off here from every planet. A lot of desperate parents left their kids here too, thinking a government facility would be best. _Wrong again_, Kyla thought, and curled her lip at the thought of being left here by her own mother.

Kyla bid silent farewells to every hiding place, every secret hallway, every student or staff member she had pranked… all her memories here as she climbed the last flight of stairs and stopped at the open doorway leading onto the roof. Rain lashed the concrete and lightning cracked the clouds overhead. Kyla's mouth dropped open at the sight of the most beautiful flying craft she had seen. A sleek blue and white Arwing hovered gently over the landing pad, heat rippling the air around it. Kyla longed to run her hand over the white tiles of its great wingspan. She imagined its streamlined body twisting and dodging in the air like a graceful bird of prey. She felt that old itch she'd felt when she first saw one on television during the Aparoid Wars start up in her fingertips. She _had_ to fly one. If all this resulted in getting to sit solo in that cockpit, Kyla decided the whole ordeal of dealing with a parent would be worth it.

Standing under an awning for protection from the rain were Blaze, a few more of the giraffe's staff, and a blue falcon Kyla recognized as Falco Lombardi from the news. They all watched her gawping at the Arwing. Kyla snapped her jaws shut and walked out into the wind and rain. She didn't bother to run, her coat soaking in a matter of seconds anyway. She didn't exactly want to seem eager.

When she walked under the awning, Kyla had to restrain herself from shaking all the water from her fur onto the Witch's staff. She had a grudging respect for Blaze, but she didn't think she should piss off one of the heroes of Lylat. "Where's Fox?" she asked bluntly, still unable to call him her father. A first name basis would have to do.

"Talkin' to the headmistress," Falco Lombardi replied shortly in a strong Cornerian accent.

_Great._ Kyla had just about resigned herself to standing awkwardly when Blaze and a young iguana stepped forward.

"Please just cooperate for once een your life, Kyla," Blaze said as he approached her, hands raised.

Kyla stepped back. "What the hell are y'doin'?"

Blaze shrugged helplessly. "Eet ees just a search. Her orders."

Kyla stiffened and shoved the iguana back. She definitely wouldn't have someone she didn't know touching her. "Kyla," Blaze warned. "Do you have somesing to hide?"

The fox glared at the cheetah. "No," she gritted.

"Zen let me search you."

Deciding it wasn't worth it, Kyla held still while Blaze patted down her pockets. A cough from Lombardi caused her to look at him. She caught him rolling his eyes as he stared off at the gray, windswept sea. The rain slacked off as Blaze finished his search. Out of the corner of her eye, Kyla saw Fox McCloud and the Witch appear in the doorway.

_Just my luck she don't have to walk in the rain._ _Even the _weather's_ scared of her._

Right then, her ear flicked at the sound of a zipper being opened. Kyla looked down to find Blaze kneeling beside her duffel bag and opening it up. "Hey!" she yelled at him. With a snarl, she rammed into him, the two of them rolling out onto the rain soaked landing pad. Kyla ended up on top and slammed her fist into the side of the cheetah's head. "That was for last time," she whispered.

"Dammit, Kyla!" Blaze growled. Kyla let him take the upper hand. He stood them both up, her arm twisted painfully up behind her back. Under the awning, Kyla saw the iguana standing triumphantly with the twenty five credits from her bag wadded up in his fist. He handed the credits to the Witch, who stood next to Fox under the awning. Fox appeared to be demanding an explanation, but Kyla saw Lombardi looking at her. His expression was somewhere between surprise and disapproval. Kyla winked playfully at him.

Blaze marched Kyla back under the awning as the clouds started to spit rain drops again. The Witch held the credits under Kyla's nose as if she was some feral dog being chastised. Kyla fought the urge to snarl at the headmistress. "Where is the rest, Miss McCloud?" the Witch demanded.

_Oh, so now I have a last name, you'll use that instead of my first?_ Kyla ignored the Witch and looked straight at Fox standing next to Lombardi as she heard a faint hiss coming from the Arwing. "I spent it," Kyla said, somewhat theatrically to cover up the sound. Fox's white eyebrows lowered into a glower. Kyla smiled.

The Witch straightened. "And you were taking the rest with you?" She smirked, looking even uglier in the light of day. "I always knew you would abandon your little friend, Oska. And was there not a squirrel named Salixa? You were going to leave them penniless while you flew away to your happy home in the sky." She clucked her tongue disapprovingly.

Kyla squirmed inwardly. She would never! But she didn't protest. Better to let them think the worst of her. She didn't want to blow it now that they were so close to success. Fox's frown deepened at her silence that proved the Witch's words true. Oops. She had disappointed daddy dearest.

"Let 'er go," Lombardi commanded Blaze. The cheetah released her. She had to fight not to rub her shoulder. The falcon turned to Fox. "We gotta go. We're gonna miss the window."

"I still expect the other twenty-five," the Witch said to Fox.

Kyla could almost swear she saw his jaw clench. "You'll get it," was all he said to her. He and Lombardi started toward the Arwing.

Kyla knelt and zipped up her duffel bag. Blaze stepped close. "For what eet ees worth, I will miss our chases."

Kyla smiled at the ground. "Me too." She stood and nodded to him. Goodbye.

The Witch's dead brown actually blazed with hatred for Kyla right then. "Goodbye and good riddance," she hissed at the fox.

Kyla spat at her hated enemy's feet. "Fuck you," she said, and walked away without looking back.


End file.
